THE CHALLENGE OF ENDING RURAL POVERTY - IFAD

FOREWORD
the better-off, gain most in this process. Here
again the issue is how to enable the poor to exercise
a stronger role in both official and non-official
institutions that affect their lives, especially at the
local level. Progress in decentralization and devolution
of authority to local institutions can sometimes
be useful but only if poor groups are sufficiently
organized to be able to take part effectively
in such institutions.
New institutional approaches in developing
financial systems for the rural poor, ranging from
microfinance and village banks to reformed agricultural
development banks and commercial
banks, offer a wide and potentially exciting range
of instruments that could open the door to saving,
credit and insurance services to poor groups.
Perhaps surprisingly, safe and locally accessible
saving services are often considered by poor
groups living in vulnerable conditions to be as
valuable as credit facilities.
But decentralization and finance are just two
examples of institutions relevant to the poor. Many
others, including national and regional ones, also
affect their lives in important ways. A wider transformation
is required for the institutional framework
to lead to a fairer distribution of the opportunities
and benefits of economic growth. Here,
NGOs and civil-society organizations could play a
vital role. So far, however, only small halting steps
have been taken.
The poor have long been with us. To end
absolute poverty will require sustained efforts at
various levels and strong partnerships among
those working for this goal. The partnerships can
be at the global level, as shown by the Millennium
Summit Declaration, at the country level with
national stakeholders and external partners acting
together, and internally, with official agencies, the
private sector and civil-society institutions collaborating
to create conditions that emancipate poor
groups from the legacy of the past and allow them
to work their way out of poverty.
But the fundamental partnership, and ultimately
the only one that counts, is with the poor
themselves. They have the talents, the skills
and the knowledge of their own environment.
Moreover, the poor, especially women, have
repeatedly shown the will and the capacity to
grasp opportunities to better their lives and make
their families and themselves less vulnerable.
Outsiders do not have to solve the problem of
poverty. They only have to help remove the shackles
that in the past have bound large numbers of
their fellow human beings.
The Millennium Summit launched human society
towards a noble and historic goal. I hope, and
believe, that this Rural Poverty Report 2001 will
make a significant contribution to this process, a
process that will be of lasting importance to all of
us in the coming decades.
Fawzi H. Al-Sultan
President of IFAD
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